Trajectories of chronic illness, biotechnology, social inequality and the restructuring of health care all demonstrate the relevance and importance of health for understanding social change. This book reflects on how our understanding and experience of health, at later ages in particular, can impact on social and technological developments. By integrating the perspectives of medical sociology, with its focus on the failing body, chronic illness, infirmity and mortality, and social gerontology, and by emphasizing the epidemiology of old age and health policy, Higgs and Jones break new ground in the study of ageing. They discuss the key issue of dependency versus success ageing and examine the prospect of a new sociology – a sociology of health in later life. This book will be essential reading for all students and researchers of medical sociology and gerontology.